


Forest Girl

by woodburn



Category: Robin Hood (2018)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Marian gets hit in the face by a random bad guy, Social Justice, Whump, also an attempted assault, degrading language and attitudes against women, kinda sad with a hopeful ending, nothing graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-09-01 11:06:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16763926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/woodburn/pseuds/woodburn
Summary: Set in the time when Robin and Marian are young and in love, living in his Manor before he leaves for the war. Marian is a environmental/social justice warrior. Rob is a good guy. Other guys are not.





	Forest Girl

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rileywrites](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rileywrites/gifts).



Sherwood forest had been brought up a lot in their conversations about social justice.

As a lord, Rob could take a hunting party into the forest on a quest for wild boar or stag. They would always eat the game – she and Rob would sometimes eat the meat themselves, and sometimes give it to Marian’s neighbors and friends, or a servant they knew was hungry. But most lords hunted the King’s game primarily for sport. The law allowed them to do so. 

The law prohibited any peasant from hunting in the King’s forests. Poachers, if they were caught, were flogged and sometimes killed. The people most in need of food were the ones forbidden from it. 

Even gathering greens from the King’s land was dangerous. That hadn’t stopped Marian. 

She’d been eight or nine years old when her mother had taught her the plants for food and healing. Every so often, her father would cautiously venture into the forest to poach a grouse or some small game, and Marian and her mother would go with him. The forest was the direct opposite of the bleak, grimy mines she hated walking past. The forest was alive and free. 

She learned where to find coltsfoot and lady’s bedstraw. She learned to look for comfrey in the shade of trees when a remedy was needed for a broken bone or a bruise. The plants were magic to Marian, as mystical as the Arthurian legends her grandfather told around the hearth. Even after she found comfort in Loxley Manor, the forest lured her back. She didn’t tell Robin. 

Maybe he guessed. They talked about the injustice of forest management enough that he knew she had strong feelings about the issue. But he knew she was her own woman, as sure as she knew she loved him – as sure as she knew he would worry about her safety if she told him where she had gathered the wild onions they ate in the stew. 

When the cook’s son developed a fever and cough, Marian assured the worried mother that she would find fresh coltsfoot to brew into a tea. She went to a meadow not far into the forest, but that technicality didn’t make a difference to the Sheriff’s patrol that spotted her. 

Her back was to them. By the time she heard the rumble of horses suddenly urged into action, it was too late to run. The coltsfoot in her basket incriminated her where she stood. 

The leather wrapped around the handle of the knife she had been using to cut the coltsfoot dug into her palm as she clenched it in her fist, but she kept the weapon hidden in a fold of her skirt. The best defense she had was to play stupid, regardless of how much she wanted to rage at them with her knife. 

The leader of the patrol stopped his horse next to her and raised his iron face mask. “What right do you have to harvest greens from the King’s land?” he boomed. 

Marian swallowed the retort she wanted to lash out with, and said instead, “I’m sorry, sir. I thought this was my father’s property.”

“Your father’s property?” the knight sneered. “Of course, your father is the King of England. Apologies, princess.”

“You’re stealing food,” another knight cut in before she could formulate a response to the first knight’s mockery. “Don’t try to deny it, wench.”

“I’m not above stealing,” Marian spat out before she could stop herself. “But this isn’t stealing. This is God’s green earth, and it’s every human’s God-given right to glean sustenance from the land, not just your sheriff’s – ” she abbreviated her remarks so she could duck away from the knight’s fist coming at her face. Instinct caused her to turn and run, even though she knew she didn’t have much chance of escaping. The weight crashing into her back a few seconds later confirmed her fears. 

The knight grappled with her as she tried to kick out, then tried to use her knife. It bounced frustratingly off his armor. Then he hit her across the face with his gauntlet, and the forest spun around her. She was vaguely aware of a hand closing around her neck when one of the knights called out. “Hold up, I recognize this bitch. She’s Lord Loxley’s peasant whore.”

Her head was still foggy as they roughly hoisted her up on a horse and trekked out of the forest back to Loxley Manor. Her desire to continue breathing only slightly won over her desire to continue her denunciation of the brutes. 

Lord Loxley’s peasant whore. Why did they have to label a relationship that meant the world to her in a way that made her feel so powerless? 

Robin must have seen them coming from a window, because he ran halfway down the path to meet them. A sword was belted at his waist but still in its sheath, although his hand hovered atop it warily. The panic in his eyes when he saw her face made her suddenly want to cry. “Marian?”

“I’m alright,” she called hoarsely. 

“What in God’s name happened?” Rob demanded to the patrol leader as he lifted her off the horse. 

“We found your whore poaching herbs in his Majesty’s forest. Would have taken her to be flogged, but my man here recognized the bitch as belonging to you.” 

Her head spun again when Robin shoved her behind him and drew his sword. “Get off my land now, before I kill whoever hurt her. Or before I kill all of you. Go!”

The knight snarled something but slowly turned around and led his patrol back down the path. Robin was facing her again, fear back in his eyes. “Marian? Love, talk to me.”

“I’m alright,” she said again hollowly. “I just – he only hit me. And then they realized who I was. I’m alright.”

Rob wiped blood off her face with the hem of his sleeve. “Let’s get you inside.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Stop thinking about it,” she told him, hours later when they were sitting around the fireplace, both of them on the floor, with sheepskins piled around them. 

He looked at her, and the pain in his gaze broke her heart. “I’m not just thinking of your attack today. I’m thinking – the church will never allow us to lawfully marry. I already had Tuck look into it.”

“You warned me about that before we even began this journey.”

“I know. But I needed to ask them again. Is cuts and bruises instead of being raped and whipped the best protection I’ll ever be able to give you? It’s not enough. No one should have to settle for that.”

“No one should be assaulted and in fear for their life, no matter what they steal,” Marian muttered back drowsily, leaning against his shoulder. “Or be spared just based on whose house they live in.”

“We could leave here,” Rob suggested quietly. “I could buy a ship and we could sail anywhere. Spain, France – or we could just live on the seas and no one could judge us. No one could say we couldn’t be married.”

“Rob, I want to change things, not abandon them.”

He sighed, and she closed her eyes and listened to his heart beat. “You’d make a braver, more chivalrous knight than any of them, Marian. And I love you for it, even though it terrifies me.”

“I love you Rob,” she whispered back. And she still loved the forest. She would fight anyone who tried to take either of those loves from her.

**Author's Note:**

> I was inspired to write this because of the author rileywrites encouraging other authors to engage in this fandom. I love it when we encourage each other and build our community :) Especially when we're in a small fandom. But I don't know you, so I hope you like it.


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